Hollowfication, The Past
by Gothic Wolfie
Summary: Surviving hollowfication isn't the problem, dealing with it afterwards is a different story. rated T may go up ShinjixOC slight LisaxOC TBTP
1. Chapter 1

Dislaimer: i do not own bleach or any of its characters, if i did the turn back the pendulum arc would have been longer and Shinji would still have long hair, oh and Aizen wouldn't have done that damn Superman copy (damn them for ruining an awesome character!), any rant over, i do however own Kyoko, Haruki and Kuma.

**Some of this will vaguely connect to Hollowfication the Future, but only little things. Set in TBTP.**

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Hollowfication, the Past

Chapter 1

_(101 years ago, somewhere near district 80 of Rukon District)_

"Why are there so many of us out here again?" Rangiku asked as she struggled to walk in pace with the Captains and Lieutenants.

"It's already been explained to you two times now!" Hiyori practically shouted as she span to face the young tenth squad member, the little patience that she had quickly running out.

"I still don't get why there has to be seven squads out here" Rangiku continued, undeterred by the twelfth squad Lieutenant's anger.

"KYOKO!!!"

"I knew ya wouldn't last long" the Captain of the tenth division smirked as she used flash step to dart from the front of the group to the back, "that's another thousand yen ya owe me Kensei!" She called to the front.

"Like hell I do!" Kensei shouted back angrily, "I said she'd last ten minutes and she did, so _you_ owe _me_ money!"

"But Hiyori didn't last ten minutes; she lasted nine minutes and fifty five seconds. That means you lose, you owe me money and I won't stop harassin' you until I get it, along with the money from all the other bets ya lost," Kyoko grinned smugly at the expression on kensei's face.

"I don't owe you money! You always either cheat or come up with some ridiculous reason like you did just now!" Kensei's rant was cut short as his Lieutenant jumped in front of him, a frustrated expression on her face.

"Kensei-meanie, you still haven't given Kyoko the money for that fight you lost?!" Mashiro exclaimed.

"Lisa threw flower petals on the field!"

"Aww Kensei-meanie liked the pretty flower petals that's why he lost" Kyoko said to the group of Soul Reapers that was walking behind them, causing the ones from her own squad to burst out laughing.

"You lot shut up!" Kensei shouted, the terrifying look on his face stopping them all instantly.

"Now now quiet down" Shunsei called from the very front of the group, "we can't afford to alter the enemy that we are here; you can all make as much noise as you want when our job is done." There was a mumbled consent from the bickering Captains as all the regiments behind them quieted down and started to proceed more cautiously.

"Captain, you still haven't told me why the third, fifth, seventh, eighth, ninth, tenth _and _twelfth squads are all out here at the same time" Rangiku continued after a few minutes silence.

"It's easier to stop a rebellion like this without hurting too many citizens if we have a larger force, with some luck most of them will catch a glimpse of half our men and go running to the hills with their tails between their legs," Kyoko answered, Kisuke, who was walking beside Hiyori, added to her answer with his own.

"Also, with half the Thirteen Court Guard Squads out here, if Seireitei is invaded and overrun there is still a sufficient force outside that can reclaim it and still have enough power to manage the damage."

"I doubt even this nutcase whose leading them would be mad enough to try and take Seireitei with just a handful of Soul Reapers and a rabble of civilians, not to mention that Captain Yamamoto is still there as well," Haruki said as he appeared from the army of Soul Reapers, Kyoko felt a twinge of guilty as she looked at the three ragged scars running down the right side of his face.

"Any reports from the scouts?" She asked him as he fell in step beside her.

"A couple of the enemies own scouting parties but otherwise nothing to report" he answered, he looked round and frowned when he didn't find what he was looking for. "Where's Kuma?"

"He went out scouting to, but he wouldn't let me come, apparently he said something about it being too dangerous" Rangiku put on a disappointed face, one that she often used on Haruki when she wanted something and her charms weren't working on the Captain.

"When he comes back ask if he'll take you on his next watch" Haruki said as he adjusted the belt that held his zanpakto on his back.

Rangiku nodded and decided that it was time to go back and talk to Gin for a bit, Haruki watched her as she disappeared into the crowd, a worried look on his face.

"Don't worry yourself Haruki" Kisuke said when he noticed the Lieutenant's anxious expression, "Rangiku's smart enough to stay out of trouble. Besides, she has that third seat friend of her's watching her back."

"I guess your right" Haruki sighed.

"Plus, the possibility that Kuma will let her out of his sight is practically none existent" Kyoko added to reassure him. "Speak of the devil," Kyoko continued as a low howl echoed through the trees. "That's Kuma's warning Shunsui" Kyoko called to the front, "we can't get much closer without riskin' bein' ambushed."

The Captain of squad eight stopped and looked up at the sky, the setting sun threaded red light through the trees, casting long ominous shadows.

"Okay we'll set up camp here and discuss how to approach this tomorrow," he said. The small grove of trees that they had chosen to set up camp in was suddenly alive with movement as everyone rushed to claim the best spots.

"C'mon Hiyori" Kyoko said as she took her arm, "ya gotta scare them all outa the best spot!"

OOO

"It's decided then, we'll strike at dusk tomorrow. Kisuke and Kensei will take their squads to the west, Love, Rose and Kyoko to the east, Shinji and I will take the south," as he spoke Captain Kyoraku put pins into the map of District 80 that they had brought with them, each pin indicating the location of the squads. "We'll leave the north open that way the smart locals can run into the hills."

"What about the Soul Reapers?" Rose asked.

"We can't afford to let any of them get away" Shunsei replied, a cold silence fell across the Captains; they all knew what no getting away meant. "All of you go and get some sleep; it's going to be busy tomorrow."

OOO

Kyoko stifled a loud yawn as she exited the tent that she had been sharing with Hiyori, Lisa and Mashiro. The stars still light up the sky as she hung water over the campfire to boil, she found the quiet of the early morning comforting as she thought about the day ahead. She couldn't figure out how such a large force had been gathered without anyone noticing, and the leader of the rebellion and his lieutenant were also causing her a lot of confusion, because they were meant to be dead.

Yukio and Jiro Watanabe had been twin brothers who had held the positions of fourth and fifth seat of squad five twenty years ago, when she had still been the Lieutenant**. **They had always been arrogant, often ignoring orders so that they could do things their way, it was this aspect of their personality that everyone had thought killed them. They had ignored orders from their Captain, Lieutenant and third seat, they ran off to fight a horde of hollows that had been spotted on the edges of Seireitei, and they had never come back.

Kyoko took two cups and poured boiling water onto the coffee beans at the bottom. She stood up and walked through the trees; she found him sitting on the edge of the hill, looking out at the lights from the town below.

"Starrin' at it isn't gunna make the problem go away" she said as she sat down, handing him one of the cups, "here, ya look like ya need it."

"Thanks Angel" Shinji said.

"How many time do I have ta tell ya not to call me that?!" She exclaimed, "what are ya doin' out here anyway?"

"It's just been botherin' me, how did they get away without even you sensin' them?"

"We thought they were dead."

"It doesn't matter what anyone thought" Shinji said as he stood up angrily, "you should have been able to sense them, the fact that you couldn't means..."

"... Someone's found a way ta bloke off even my senses" Kyoko finished quietly. He nodded.

"We'll just have ta be careful then" Kyoko continued as she glared down at the town.

"C'mon" Shinji said as he took her arm, "the others will be awakin' up now."

OOO

The setting sun was blocked from view by thick grey clouds as the third, seventh and tenth divisions moved through the shadows, surrounding the campfires before them from the east.

"What's the battle plan?" Rose asked his fellow Captains as they paused in a thick bundle of trees.

"Kyoko, can you sense how many enemies there are, and which ones are Soul Reapers?" Love turned to her as she jumped into the lower branches of the trees.

"I can only sense two Soul Reapers in our area," she replied after an unusually long silence. She shook her head, squinted her eyes and sighed heavily.

"What's wrong?" Rose asked, concerned.

"It's all fuzzy, like there's somethin' tryin' ta bloke my senses."

"Seki-seki rock?" Love guessed.

"No, it's similar but... Grrr, I can't place it" Kyoko pounded her fist against the tree in anger, she hated being so blind.

"Perhaps we should pull back" Rose said "I don't want to risk any unnecessary deaths, maybe it would be safer to send in a small scout to see if they can find out what's going on." Love and Kyoko both agreed that it was the best approach, so they quickly gathered together a small group of squad members, with Haruki and Kuma at the head of the group.

"Remember, no fightin', just find out what the land is like and more accurate numbers of what we are dealin' with" Kyoko looked pointedly at Kuma as she spoke, the wolf just grumbled and shook out his fur, an action that made the men standing behind him shift nervously. "I mean it Kuma" she continued sternly, "no funny business."

"Don't worry Captain" Rangiku said as she walked over and patted the wolf's side, "I'll make sure he behaves himself." Kuma bared his teeth and turned his head towards the girl.

"Don't look at me like that; Lieutenant Yamada said that I could come next time you go scouting."

"I told you to ask him" Haruki cried in his defence, before the horned wolf spirit call turn his frustration on him.

"Please Captain" Rangiku pleaded, turning on a new target, "how often is an opportunity to test myself like this going to come up?"Kyoko looked at the other two Captains who just shrugged their shoulders unhelpfully. She knew that Rangiku had a good point; she couldn't be denied the opportunity.

"Don't wonder off," Kyoko gave in "Keep the group in sight at all times, if you get attacked, take care of them before Kuma gets there, the last thing I want is to spend the next week cleaning up an avoidable bloody mess." Kuma snorted in objection as he turned towards the campfires.

"Everyone listen up," Love addressed all of their warriors, "when we do go in we avoid as many civilian deaths as we can, also, we should try and capture at least one of the Soul Reapers alive, there are questions that need answering."

"We won't be long" Haruki assured the Captains, in a whirl of Flash Step, he and the scouting party disappeared into the enemy territory.

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**Awww poor Kensei-Meanie, he has ta put up with crap from Mashiro and Kyoko lol.**

**I probably wont update again until half term (which is only a few weeks away so not that long) by that point I'll hopefully have 4 or 5 chapters ready to upload so it will be pretty steady update for a couple weeks after that.**

**You guys no the drill, plz review!**


	2. Chapter 2

**Disclaimer: I do not own Bleach or its characters, i do own my OCs Kyoko, Haruki and Kuma.... oh and the villian guy in this chapter i guess.**

**I know i said that i wasn't going ta update til half term, but i really wanted to post a chapter, n this is close enough.**

**Enjoy!**

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Chapter 2

A roar rose through the town as the army of thugs sprang to life; weapons raised high, and charged at the startled scouting party.

"Let's go!" Love shouted over the curses of their main force. The little discipline that there was within the ranks of the rebels quickly fell apart as they saw the magnitude of the attack presented before them. Many slipped away and sprinted to the north and the safety of the hills, ignoring the screams of the two Soul Reapers that were meant to be their commanders.

Rose and Love fell on the two Soul Reapers with enough force to crush anyone's hope of escape. The first one fell within minutes with a deep wound across his chest, seeing his companion fall the other Soul Reaper dropped his zanpakto and tried to run. His escape was cut short as Haruki's sword glimmered in the fire-light and sent the traitors head flying into the flames.

Kyoko found herself surrounded by a large group of thugs, they all grinned toothily at what they thought was an easy target. Kyoko grinned back as she released her spirit energy; the pressure of the red energy wiped the grins off of their faces as they scrambled over each other to escape, not intending to end up like the two Soul Reapers. One didn't run, the woman threw her weapon aside and fell to her knees, crawling towards Kyoko with a desperate expression on her face.

"P-please, he has my son!" The woman cried as she stopped a distance away from Kyoko, the Captain's spirit pressure made it impossible to come any closer.

"Who does?" Kyoko questioned.

"Master Yukio! He told me to bring him the woman with brown hair and a red zanpakto. He said if I didn't..." Kyoko looked at the woman sceptically, she knew that she was being told the truth, no one could act being that distressed, but it was all too clear that this was a very obvious trap.

"Let me guess," she said to the woman. "He told you to make sure that I come alone, 'cause there's more than likely a huge ambush waitin' for me; and I'm guessin' that he told ya to use force if necessary." The woman reached for her dropped weapon and struggled back to her feet; she nearly dropped the blade again when Kyoko suppressed her energy and motioned for the woman to lead.

"Wh-what?"

"I can tell that you're not lyin' about your kid, and for that bastard to go to all this trouble there must be somethin' important goin' on, lead the way." Kyoko knew that both brothers weren't the type to lay traps if they wanted someone dead, this really wasn't there style.

"_You know what this means?"_ Amaya suddenly asked.

"_Yeah, it looks like the Watanabe brothers aren't the bosses behind this after all."_

"_Kyoko?" _Kuma's voice echoed through her head, confusion clear in his tone.

"_This could be a chance ta get some answers. Gather a group and follow behind us, this woman won't give ya away 'cause she won't know ya there."_

"_Don't take any more stupid risks ya idiot!" _With that Kuma ended the conversation, but Kyoko was glad to feel that he hadn't completely severed the connection.

The woman led her through cramped streets of rundown buildings, travelling further and further away from the main force; Kyoko noted that no matter where they went there was a large fire burning nearby, she shivered slightly; she didn't like fire at all. It started to rain as eventually they came out into a wide open space of grass, metres away the ground dropped away into a steep cliff. Though it wasn't a far enough fall to kill a Soul Reaper, Kyoko still wanted to avoid the scenario of anyone going over the edge.

Standing in front of them, highlighted by an especially large fire, was Yukio himself, flanked by ten Soul Reapers and a handful of normal souls. Another Soul Reaper was kneeling to their right, the blade of his sword pressed against the throat of a young boy. The woman shouted and ran towards her son; Kyoko grabbed her arm to stop her as the Soul Reaper jerked the blade, drawing a thin line of blood from the boy's neck.

"Good work my dear, you brought the right person after all, it's been a while Lieutenant Yori." Yukio's sly voice made her skin crawl; she had forgotten how his black jaw-length hair and narrow white eyes also added to his disturbing atmosphere.

"I guess the squad's theories must have been right, ya have been livin' underground for the last twenty years, haven't ya Yukio?" Kyoko's unusual greeting got exactly the reaction she wanted, he and his brother, at least, were still as short tempered as they had always been.

"What the hell's that supposed to mean?" He growled menacingly; the woman shrank back against Kyoko, terrified for her son's and her own safety.

"Don't worry" Kyoko said to her, "he's all talk and no fight."

"You're being awfully cocky, you should be more careful, I am far above the power of a measly Lieutenant now" Yukio said smugly.

"But are you above a Captain?" Kyoko nearly laughed at the dumbfounded expression on the man's face.

"C-C-C-Captain!?!!?"

"Master Yukio! He didn't tell us that! He didn't tell us that she was a Captain!!!" One of the Soul Reapers beside him started panicking.

"Who didn't tell you?" Kyoko asked.

"SHUT UP!" Yukio roared "if you're a Captain where's your haori?"

"I left it back in the camp; I didn't want the white giving me away while we were in the woods."

"Tch it doesn't matter if you're a Captain or not, you're still outnumbered by over twenty," Yukio sneered at her.

"Outnumbered?" Kyoko said as she pointed to a spot just behind the Soul Reaper holding the child. "You don't seriously think that I was stupid enough ta come alone do ya?"

All the Soul Reaper saw was a large shadow forming behind him, seconds later Kuma's fangs crushed through his head, ending his life instantly.

"Take the kid and run!" Kyoko shouted to the shocked woman as she drew her sword. The rest of the group that Kuma had gathered came storming out of the buildings, quickly taking advantage of the enemy's confusion. The local residents quickly realised that they were no match; one even went as far as trying to kill one of the Soul Reapers that he had been working with. The large fire blazed as the man's body was thrown into the flames; the Soul Reaper looked pleased with himself until the blade of a sword ripped its way through his chest and he joined his victim in the fire.

Kyoko went straight for Yukio, who only just drew his sword in time to block her first attack. Kyoko quickly made it clear that Yukio and his men were no match for her own forces. She drew first blood seconds into the fight as Amaya's blade grazed across Yukio's temple, blinding his right eye as the blood flowed into his face. She couldn't believe how many mistakes he made, he seemed confused, like none of this was supposed to be happening. His most costly mistake came when Yukio took his eyes off of his opponent to search for any allies that he had left. The blade of Kyoko's zankato sank into his hip, forcing him to stagger back and scream for his remaining three men, who quickly formed a protective circle around him.

"You think you've won!?" Yukoi began to laugh madly. "You think you've won?!"

"What's so funny?" Kyoko asked as the rain really began coming down in earnest. Rain, pouring rain...

"Haven't you noticed the fire?!" Yukio shouted almost gleefully, "it's been raining and raining but the fire still hasn't gone out! You want to know why?!" The ground around the fire had begun to shake violently as he spoke, a massive form began forcing its way upwards, using the rocks, soil and fire to form limbs, a lizard like head and tail, and a large gaping hole in its chest. "They aren't fires!!!" Yukio screamed ecstatically.

"They're hollows" Kyoko said as her eyes widened with surprise.

000

"Surround it!" Kyoko shouted as the squad members froze in shock. "Don't just stand there, move!" Kuma snarled viciously, snapping some of the men out of their confusion, but before anyone had the chance to do anything else the hollow roared at the grey sky and whipped out its flame coated tail.

Kyoko dived forwards and covered her head as the flames whooshed passed, she ground her teeth as some of the slower ones got caught in the blaze, unable to escape the fire's hungry flames. Kyoko opened her eyes and looked around at the ring of fire that had been thrown around her, and the ominous cliff edge that had been left clear; the only one left with her was the hollow. She tried desperately to sense the others outside the circle, but all she could make out was barely recognisable blurs.

"So, you're the one who's been blocking my senses" she said as the hollow hissed at her hatefully. Kyoko jumped and dodged out of the way as the hollow struck continuously at her, trying to either impale her on its claw or burn her in the fire.

Soon she was cover in shallow cuts and burns, the heat and smoke from the fire making her breathe harsh and gasping, draining strength from her every second. The pelting rain had no affect on the flames as the hollow continued to spit and strike. Kyoko was grateful that the creature wasn't intelligent, if it had been it would have simply immediately driven her in to the fire ring. Instead it circled widely and attacked clumsily, causing damage more from lucky and the increasing affect of the fire rather than skill. The hollow stopped on the opposite side of the circle stupidly leaving its side wide open.

Kyoko gasped in the dwindling oxygen and charged forwards. She forced as much energy as she could into her blade as it made contact with the rock body; the hollow shrieked deafeningly as its stomach was ripped from one end to the other. It stumbled carelessly around the flames, blinded by pain. It didn't see the cliff edge. It let out a blood-curdling scream. It fell. More flames exploded as the hollow smashed into the ground, it's own life force eating it away.

Kyoko was relieved to feel that as the hollow burned her senses started to return, but not quickly enough to avoid the fist that appeared out of the fire and struck her head. Amaya clattered towards the cliff as the sword fell out of Kyoko's grasp. The Captain slumped to her hands and knees as blood began running down into her left eye, the wound on her head making her confused and disorientated.

"Stupid creature, couldn't even fucking kill someone without messing it up!" Yukio's voice smashed into her ears like drums and made her grind her teeth angrily, Kyoko groaned as she tried to struggle back to her feet. His hand twisted in her hair and yanked her head up, forcing her to look at him. "Bitch! You still think you're better than me don't you? After all of the power I've been given you still think you're better? Look at you! You're whimpering at my feet!"

"Ya maniac! You've completely lost it haven't ya?" Kyoko spat out, her comment caused Yukio to release her hair and draw his sword, he held it above his head mockingly.

"Lost it have I? Were's your zanpakto hmm? Over there in the dirt!" He pointed behind him at where Amaya had landed, that was when she saw her chance.

"Ya really are an idiot, ya haven't even realised where you're standin'."

"What-" Kyoko didn't give him the chance to finish his sentence, she sprang forwards with all the force she could, tackling him right in the stomach. Yukio shrieked as his zanpakto fell into the flames burning below the cliff. The traitor lost his footing and started to follow his blade, but not before grabbing the back of Kyoko's uniform, pulling her down with him.

"Crap!" She managed to cry out as the man's weight pulled her over the edge and down towards the hungry blaze.

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**I'm sorry, ur all gunna hate me but this has to be said... *deep breath* CLIFFHANGER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! MWAHAHAHAHAHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!**

**I'm sorry i couldn't help it.**

**P.S I've decided to delete Hollowfication : The Future, i can't think of any ideas for it and its easier if i just focus on one story at a time anyway, however, i am thinking of another story in teh present bleach timeline thats gunna focus more around Haruki, just cause i've noticed poor Haruki doesn't get as much attention from me as he should.**

**Plz review!**


	3. Chapter 3

**Disclaimer: I do not own Bleach or its characters, i do however own Kyoko, Haruki, Kuma and Yukio.**

**CHAPTER THREEEEEEE!!!!!! i'm so happy, i think this is the longest chapter that i have ever written, 3000 words people!!!!!!!**

**Stebbins Stella: mine are all at least 5000.**

**STOP CRUSHING MY HAPPINESS!!!!!!!!!!!**

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Chapter 3

Kyoko snapped out her hand desperately, grasping rain soaked rock in time to escape the flames. She grunted as Yukio grabbed onto her right leg, she felt her grip slipping as his weight pulled down over the cliff.

"Let go! Ya gunna drag us both down!"

"There's only going to be one of us going down there!" He screamed back at her.

"Wha- Gahh!" Kyoko hadn't noticed that Yukio had pulled out a knife until she had looked down and seen it imbedded in the top of her right leg. He grabbed the back of her uniform in one hand and the handle of the blade in the other; he smirked viciously as he started to pull himself back up.

"STOP!" Kyoko screamed as the weight on the knife forced it downwards, carving a deep wound down to her knee. Deliriously she let go of the cliff with one hand and grabbed the front of his shirt, her hand glowed blue as she forced power into the fist.

"What do you think you're doing?" Yukio laughed, "I know that you can't use kido!"

"Ya really are as crazy as you look. Did ya forget after twenty years? I don't try and avoid kido 'cause I can't do it, I avoid the destructive spells 'cause my aim completely sucks."

Yukio's face fell dramatically as he realised what she was saying.

"Even I can't miss point blank" Kyoko continued, "Hado 33, Sokatsui." Blue energy exploded out of her fist and blasted Yukio away from the cliff, sending him tumbling down towards the inferno. Kyoko placed her hand back on the cliff quickly, unwilling to take the risk of losing her balance, especially with one leg now useless. She shifted her hands along the grass at the top to get better grip and put a little weight on her right leg to test it.

Her vision went black and she nearly fell backwards, she threw herself against the rocks just in time to stop herself. She found a good foot hold with her other foot and took a deep breath. It took more strain than she thought it would and she nearly blacked out again, but seconds later she was sprawled on the ground, gasping in as much oxygen as she could. The pounding rain was beginning to wear out the fire ring, but Kyoko couldn't sense anyone nearby, she could feel others fighting further away. Kyoko spotted Amaya lying a few feet away, she gathered as much strength as she could and started to crawl towards her. Kyoko was almost within grasping distance of her when she collapsed unable to move. She felt the torrential water soothing the scratches all over her body, and watched as it washed away the blood from her leg, becoming more concentrated every minute.

"Shit... Leg... get knife..." Kyoko lost consciousness as she tried to reach around, the last thing she heard was Kuma howling in the distance.

OOO

It was dark when Kyoko opened her eyes, the only light came from the small fire-lizard hollow that was steadily trotting over to her.

"Shit!" Kyoko cursed, she reached for her zanpakto but it wasn't there. Blurrily she remembered that Amaya was just an arm's length away, she reached out, stretching as far as could, but she couldn't reach her sword as the hollow came closer and closer. Her eyes widened as the creature stood over her, its white fangs glowing in the light from its fire.

The hollow died in a fountain of blood as a metal pole was forced through its body, Love kicked what was left of the creature away and threw the blood soaked pole aside as Rose and Haruki caught up to him, they ran over to Kyoko immediately when they saw that state that she was in.

"Quickly! We have to get this knife out of her and bind her leg now before she loses more blood!" Haruki sounded frantic as he began pulling medical supplies out of a pack.

"What ya talkin' about?" She mumered, she saw the hollow lying a few feet away and started to laugh, "couldn't ya have cut that I bit closer Love?"

"She's completely delusional" Rose exclaimed, Kyoko didn't get a chance to answer that before she lost consciousness again.

OOO

"Is she goin' ta wake up soon?"

"Maybe, it's hard to say, for all we know she could sleep for another two or three days yet."

"..."

"Go and get something to eat with the other Captain, Captain Hirako. I will call you when she wakes up."

"...Okay, thanks Captain Unohana."

Kyoko groaned and opened her eyes, she found herself looking up at the roof of a brown canvas tent. She pushed herself into a sitting position and looked around, trying to figure out where she was.

"So you've finally woken up Captain Yori, how do you feel?"

"Tired" Kyoko replied as Captain Unohana knelt down beside her and handed her a steaming hot cup.

"Here, Captain Hirako said that you would probably need this when you woke up."

"That softy" Kyoko said as she took the cup of coffee, "how long was I out?"

"Three days" Unohana answered her.

"Three days!!!" Kyoko shouted, jolting Kuma, who she hadn't noticed lying beside her, out of his sleep. He span and growled, but stopped when he saw who it was that had woken him up. With a whine he darted forwards and shoved his nose into Kyoko's face, making her laugh as she tried to push him away.

"_Don't ya dare ever do somethin' like that again! Do ya know how worried we all were?! We thought you were dead!!!" _Kuma sounded angry and relieved all at once; he waged his tail and grinned at Captain Unohana, who smiled back warmly.

"I'm guessing that he is telling you how worried everyone has been" she said.

"More like screaming it at me" Kyoko replied as she rubbed the back of her head, feeling the bandages wrapped around it. She looked down and saw that her right leg was covered in bandages as well. "Is it me, or have I been practically livin' in the medical unit since I became a Captain?" Kuma snorted in agreement and settled back beside her; he held out a paw and forced her back down when she tried to stand up.

"_Where do ya think ya goin'?"_

"I've been in here for three damn days! I need ta get out!" Kyoko replied as she pushed away his leg. Kuma got to his feet and stood over her, stopping her efforts again. "Please!" Kyoko looked up at Captain Unohana pleadingly, "if this lump stays with me it should be okay right?"

"It has been three days, your men need to know your alright, as long as you don't start running off to fight more hollows again it should be fine." Unohana said reasonably.

"Listen to the doctor Kuma, and get your foot off my stomach." Kuma grumbled and growled as they made their way out of the medical tent and out into the clearing that they had camped in before the raid. The sun was setting again as Kuma lead Kyoko through the camp and towards squad ten.

"CAPTAIN!!!" All Kyoko saw was a blur of strawberry blonde hair before Rangiku wrapped her arms around her and hugged her tightly, almost in tears. "We were so worried! Everyone from the other squads was saying that you might die, but I didn't believe them and then Kuma growled at them and tried to eat them so they stopped but they still talked about it when he wasn't there and we were all so worried!" The girl talked so fast that Kyoko only just understood what she was saying.

"Whoa, easy Rangiku; I'm obviously not dead and Kuma did what?" Her voice turned darker as she turned to her guard, Kuma just looked back, obviously not seeing what was wrong with trying to eat the other Soul Reapers.

"Rangiku, you're going to suffocate her if you're not careful" Haruki said as he walked towards them, followed by the rest of their squad. "I'm glad you're okay."

"As okay as I can be" Kyoko replied as she pulled him into a hug, he looked uncomfortable when she let him go, his blush obvious to all of them. "What happened to you anyway, the point of a scouting party was to not start a fight."

Haruki sighed and ran a hand through his hair, "I don't know, we were almost back when someone started shouting, I thought that they must have seen us but we were well hidden." Haruki didn't have to finish the report because they both knew what it meant, someone had tipped off the enemy.

"Okay then, I had better go and see Rose and Love, I'm sorry, I guess I scarred all of you half to death when you found me like that."

"Actually the scariest part was when you started laughing." Kyoko gave her Lieutenant a confused look, but she waved in away and continued towards the other squads.

OOO

"Kyoko! You could have sent us a message saying that you were up" Love said as Kyoko limped her way over to the large campfire, where all of the other Captains and Lieutenants were gathered.

"Sorry" Kyoko said holding up her hands apologetically, "I didn't think of it."

"Are you sure that you should be up and walking around?" Shunsui asked, "you don't look as well as you should."

"Shuddup, Retsu said it was fine," Kyoko said as she sat down between Mashiro and Lisa, "besides, you know I hate stayin' in those hospital places longer than I have to."

"At least she's got her body guard with her right" Rose said as Kuma parked himself almost on top of her again.

"Just what I wished for, a giant wolf thing sittin' on top of me" Kuma grunted at her comment as she reached out and started platting the red fur of his mane. "Did anythin' interestin' happen while I was asleep?"

"Not really" Kensei said, "there were some serious injuries but no casualties, and the civilians seem to have quietened down a bit. We managed to capture a couple of those traitorous bastards, but as soon as we started questioning them they just dropped dead, like that" Kensei snapped his fingers for emphasis.

"Yeah, it was kinda scary," Mashiro said, "but not as scary as that tongue-lashing Shinji gave Love and Rose."

"What?"

"He was making so much noise I'm surprised that he didn't wake you up himself Kyoko. In the end Captain Unohana herself had to come out and tell him to shut it, even Shinji wouldn't dare go against her," Shunsui finished with a mock shiver of fear.

"That reminds me," Kyoko said thoughtfully "when did Captain Unohana and squad four get here? I thought they stayed in the Seireitei."

"When I realised how many we had injured and that one of our best healers was in no state to do anything I sent her a message to come as quickly as possible. I was as surprised as everyone else when I got a reply saying that they were already half way here." Shunsui looked over towards the medical tent as he spoke, "I guess she's just been a healer so long that she instinctively knows when she is needed."

"Excuse me" Kuma snarled viciously as Aizen appear out of the shadows, he glanced nervously at the wolf as Kyoko attempted to calm him down.

"What the hell's wrong with ya Kuma?" Kyoko asked as she grabbed one of his horns and pulled back sharply, spinning his head around to look at her, "enough."

"Sorry" Aizen continued, "do any of you know where my Captain is? I can't find him anywhere." Kyoko could sense exactly where he was, she could also sense that he _was not_ in a good mood.

"I'll go and get him" Kyoko said as she got awkwardly back to her feet.

OOO

"Kuma, stay down here okay," Kuma started to object but she cut him off abruptly, "please." He sighed and curled up at the base of the hill, keeping his eyes back at the camp. Is took her a lot longer than before, but eventually Kyoko made it to the top of the hill where she and Shinji had talked before the raid.

"Kyoko? What are ya doin' here? Ya should be in bed."

"You should be down there with the other Captains." Kyoko replied as Shinji turned to look at her.

"They won't want me down there," he said solemnly "not after that scene I made earlier."

"What, the one where you started screamin' at Rose and Love 'cause of what happened ta me?" Shinji looked up sharply.

"You were awake?"

"No, they told me about it." Shinji sighed and put his head in his hands. Kyoko limped over and lowered herself down beside him.

"It was my own fault for bein' so stupid and walkin' straight into that mess." She reached out and took his hand in hers, "so stop bein' so protective, otherwise you'll be in constant depression in a few years, the rate I'm goin' I might as well move all of my stuff into the squad four hospital right now." Shinji laughed.

"If I wasn't so protective ya would have been dead years ago."

"True" Kyoko reached over and wrapped her arms around his shoulders; he turned to look at her in surprise as she leaned closer. "Thanks"

"What for?"

"Always bein' there."

"Did you hit ya head as well in that fight, Angel?"

"What do ya think the bandages are for, decoration." He started a reply but was cut off when she brought her face closer to his, "thanks." If it wasn't for the fact that he was already sitting on the floor, Shinji would have fallen right over as she pressed her lips to his. He gasped in surprise, they had done a lot of flirting over the years, especially over the last few months, but she had never been this forward before.

"Sorry" Kyoko said as she pulled away, blushing brightly, she struggled back to her feet and started heading back down the hill, "I don't know what happened there, sorry. See you back at the campfire, sorry."

"Kyoko wait." When she turned around he was standing right in front of her, he wrapped his arms around her waist and pulled her closer to him, he could feel her hesitating as he whispered in her ear, "don't say sorry Angel." She didn't hesitate when he kissed her back, her arms wrapped around his neck as she moved closer.

"_Kyoko, Shinji."_

"Aahh!" Shinji jolted away at the unexpected call. Kyoko turned angrily to face the base of the hill, even though she couldn't see the wolf she still glared through the trees.

"_What?"_ She snapped back through their telepathic link.

"_The others want us ta come back, somethin' about a meetin'."_

"I don't think their timin' coulda been any worse," Shinji grumbled as they both made their way back down the hill.

"I know what ya mean" Kyoko said as she walked as close to him as possible, "let's just hope it's somethin' important."

OOO

"Party! Party! Paaaaartyyyyyyy!!!!" Kyoko was nearly knocked over as Mashiro went zooming past; the green hair woman was almost bursting with excitement as she pranced around the camp, where squad members were all settling into friendship groups and sake was being passed out left, right and centre.

"It's a good thing we're not in a buildin' or she'd be bouncin' off the walls" Shinji stated as they worked their way through the already tipsy Soul Reapers and headed towards the Captains' and Lieutenants' fire.

"You guys coulda said that you were gunna do somethin' like this" Kyoko said as she and Shinji sat down side by side.

"What and ruin the surprise?" Shunsui said as he rose up what was obviously at least his third cup of sake. "We won! We need to celebrate! Besides," Shunsui continued a bit quieter, "it's always good to let the men know that we appreciate what they've done."

"By lettin' 'em get completely bladdered?" Kyoko paused thoughtfully for a moment, "sounds good ta me, hey Kensei!"

"What?" He shouted back across the campfire.

"Ya can work off some of that money ya owe me if ya get me, Kuma and Shinji a drink!"

"I don't owe you any money!"

"Even if ya didn't, and ya do, ya can get the drinks anyway!" It didn't take long for the festivities to go into full swing; soon there was an uproar of cheers and toasts.

"To Kyoko!" Kisuke shouted.

"Wha-what" her babbling was drowned in a roaring chorus of cheers as all of the squads shouted in approval.

"You took out the boss" Haruki said as he swayed dangerously beside her, "things could have been a lot worse if it wasn't for you." It was at that point that one of the members of squad three came into the circle, carrying one of Rose's guitars.

"C'mon Captain!" He shouted as he handed over the instrument, "play us a song!"

"Haruki!" Lisa ran over to them and grabbed his hand as Rose started to strum the first few bars of a song, "let's dance!" Kuma shook with laughter at the bewildered look on the Lieutenant's face.

"Oi, don't be mean," Kyoko chided him, flicking his ear. Kuma grinned toothily at her and bounded to his feet, taking the opportunity to just have fun and not get in too much trouble. She tried to keep an eye on him, but the events of the week were starting to catch up with her again. In the end Shinji moved so that he was behind her and she slumped against him, barely able to keep her eyes open

"I'll make sure he doesn't eat anyone" he assured her.

"Thanks" she sighed; the strokes of the guitar matched the rhythm of his breathing as Kyoko curled up and closed her eyes, quickly drifting off to sleep.

* * *

**The captains have such bad timing lol. so its just started getting more romanticy (is that even a word?! o.0) how'd i do? was it ok, needs a lot of work... was it just plain terrible? (i sure hope not) Any tips would be much apprecitated.**

**This chapter was so tedious ta write, it just went on and on and on, it wouldn't stop lol**

**Plz review!!!!!!**


	4. Chapter 4

**Disclaimer: i do not own Bleach or its characters, i do own Kyoko, Haruki, Kuma, Amaya and Akuma**

**OVER 6500 WORDS!!!!!!!! this is the longest chapter i have ever written!!! wow! Anyway, i really enjoyed writing this chapter, mostly cause we finally get ta the part where they hollowfy!!!**

**I'm gunna try adding more romance and darker themes to my stories, so if there are any scenes in any chapters or stories that i post from now that seem a bit awkward or that they could use a bit of work could ya please point them out to me.**

**Enjoy! **

* * *

Chapter 4

Kyoko blinked as early morning sunlight streamed in through the window, she squinted and rolled away from the stinging light. She opened her eyes again slowly and smiled when she saw that Shinji was still asleep. It had been three weeks since they had returned to the Seireitei and the two of them had been practically inseparable all of that time. She curled up and moved closer to him, making the most of being awake before she had to get up; she reasoned that she had plenty of time, since the sun was only just coming up.

"_Kyoko, I know you're up, are ya at the fifth's barrack?" _Kyoko sat up abruptly.

"_Kuma? What the hell are ya doin' up so early?"_

"_Shut it" _the wolf replied grumpily_, "Retsu wants ta see ya, she sent a hell butterfly tellin' ya ta get ya ass there as soon as possible."_

"_I'm sure it wasn't worded quite as crudely as that" _Kyoko replied as she rubbed her eyes sleepily.

"_Just get ya ass there, and don't think just cause ya next door to 'em ya can take it slowly, I'm goin' back ta bed."_ Kyoko sighed and yawned stretching as high as she could; she nearly jumped out of her skin when Shinji hugged her around her waist.

"What's wrong? Did somethin' happen?"

"Nah," Kyoko replied "just Kuma, he said that Retsu wants ta talk ta me. Did I wake ya?"

"I was awake anyway" Shinji yawned, "what time is it?"

"I'd say six at the latest, damn I slept late" Kyoko said casually as she began to drag herself out of the bed.

"Angel? Ya not bloody serious are ya?" Shinji asked with a look of panic on his face. Kyoko leaned over and kissed him, giving one of her trade mark impish smiles.

"You'll never have a late mornin' as long as ya with me Shinji" she said as she turned and picked up her uniform, "I'm gunna get changed, go back ta sleep, it's still pretty early." When Kyoko came back she found that he had already gotten up and changed.

"Might as well come with ya since I'm awake anyway, besides, she sent me a message yesterday sayin' that she wanted ta see me this mornin' anyway." Kyoko laughed and hugged him before turning and walking out of the room. She wasn't really surprised to see Aizen already waiting by the fifth squad's gate; however, she was a bit shocked to find her own Lieutenant waiting with him.

"If Kuma made any more noise about having to be up so early we'd already be getting complaints from Kensei and Zaraki" Haruki answered her question before she even asked it. Kyoko laughed as they began to make their way towards squad four, she asked him how he had stopped Kuma storming over to wake them up himself.

"I didn't" Haruki laughed as he scratched his scar, a habit that he had developed when he was feeling awkward or nervous, which was often. "He woke up Rangiku and she started shouting at him that shut him up" Shinji doubled over with laughter, he was wiping tears out of his eyes as the others looked at him.

"Err... are you ok Captain?" Haruki asked.

"Sorry" Shinji gasp "I was just thinkin' about that great lummox bein' shut up by a little girl!"

"I don't think you'd be laughing if you were on the receiving end of her temper" Haruki said, a small smile on his face.

"Just think Hiyori, just more shoutin'" Kyoko clarified. Shinji was saved trying to think of a reply as they entered the fourth's barracks and were greeted by Captain Unohana herself.

"Good morning" she said "I'm sorry to wake you so early but there is something that needs to be discussed. How is your leg Captain Yori?" Unohana continued as she led them through the building.

"Almost as good as new" Kyoko replied happily, she still walked with a bit of a limp but that was to be expected.

"That's good; I was worried that it would take a while, considering how deep the knife had gone."

"No need ta worry, it healed just in time, our squads are headin' out in a few hours ta deal with some stragglers from that fiasco a few weeks ago" Kyoko informed her.

"Yes I heard about that; just make sure that you don't put too much strain on your leg, I would rather not have to treat more of your wounds so soon after that," Unohana said, concern clear in her voice.

"So ya don't want her ta move her stuff in yet" Shinji said as they entered one of the autopsy rooms. Kyoko noticed Haruki shifting nervously as he stepped in behind them; he had never really liked these rooms. She was mildly pleased to see that Aizen was fairing even worse than her Lieutenant.

"You don't have to wait in here if you don't want to Lieutenant Aizen" Unohana said after a few moments. Kyoko looked back sharply at him, this wasn't like him at all, and all of her brain's warning signals were blaring.

"He's fine" Shinji said sharply, turning and giving his subordinate a stern look. Unohana shrugged and turned to one of the tables where a pile of clothes had been laid out, Kyoko pulled back quickly, it felt wrong, very wrong.

"Can you sense something around this Captain Yori?" Unohana asked after registering Kyoko's reaction.

"I can't tell specifically" Kyoko said, shaking her head, "it's too old, it just feels... Wrong." Unohana nodded and began to explain to them.

"I don't know if you have heard or not, but there have been various cases in the Rukon District lately of people vanishing, leaving no detectable traces behind, well except to those with more sensitive senses."

"So some of 'em decided ta run off, what's the problem?" Kyoko asked confused.

"I didn't say that they disappeared, I said that they vanished" Unohana repeated patiently, "it appears that they simple were unable to hold their own form, and disintegrated while they were still alive, if they had died and turned into spirit particles, their clothes would have gone with them."

"Do ya know what's happenin' ta 'em?" Shinji asked, Unohana shook her head negatively.

"What I told you is about all that we know, the ninth division have already been sent out to investigate, we just need to wait a few days for their report before we can learn anything more." All four of the visitors thanked Unohana for informing then and started to make their own way back out of the barrack, leaving the medical squad to their work.

"Is it me, or is there a lot of weird stuff happening lately?" Haruki asked as they made their way through the corridors, he and his Captain leading the way.

"I sure know it, 'cause I'm spendin' more time here than usual" Kyoko replied casually, "we should make it a priority ta question some of these stragglers over the next couple of days, they might know somethin'."

Shinji looked to the side as they exited the building and smiled.

"Hey, good mornin'"

"Huh?" Kyoko turned as well and waved when she saw the top three member of squad twelve walking towards them, "mornin' you three."

"Oh, good mornin' Captain Hirako, Captain Yori, Lieutenant Yamada, Lieutenant Aizen," Kisuke replied as the three of them came to a stop.

"How many times do we have ta tell ya to call us by our first names?" Kyoko complained, making Kisuke laugh.

"Good mornin' Mayuri" Shinji greeted the pale skinned third seat.

"I've told you repeatedly that I would prefer you to maintain formality and address me as Kurotsuchi, you're such a bothersome man" he said, making Kyoko twitch angrily.

"What a douche" Shinji said with an unimpressed expression on his face.

"Bastard" Haruki said under his breath, glaring at the third seat.

"Haruki, don't go startin' fights... Man, that sounded so weird," Kyoko said over her shoulder, earning a smile from the Lieutenant.

"Oh, have you heard the news?" Shinji asked as he turned back to Kisuke.

"What news?" Shinji didn't get the chance to reply as Hiyori attacked from behind him, sending him sprawling to the floor.

"OW!!! What the hell was that for Hiyori?"

"Ya haven't said hi ta me yet," the Lieutenant said as she crossed her arms, "how dare ya say hi ta everyone but me!" She shouted as she started pulling his hair. Shinji tried desperately holding her away at arm's length.

"I don't think that's workin' very well" Kyoko said, neither of them seemed to hear her as they continued squabbling. "You'd thing we were still kids" she sighed as she and Haruki edged past them.

"Why the hell should I say hi to you?" Hiyori scowled and grabbed Shinji's face and started pulling at his mouth.

"C'mon! Say it! Say it!!!"

"Aaaand with that we're out of here" Kyoko exclaimed as she walked past Kisuke and Aizen, the two blondes still oblivious to the fact that they were leaving. "See ya later Kisuke. Aizen, make sure he meets us on time okay" she waved behind her as she walked away.

"Are you sure it's okay to leave them fighting like that?" Haruki asked as they walked away.

"Well if they kill each other we won't have ta listen to 'em anymore" Kyoko laughed openly at the expression on his face, "c'mon, we gotta head out in a few hours, I want ta get this done as quickly as possible."

OOO

"Who's the best at kido here?" Kyoko asked the Soul Reapers gathered behind her as they looked down at small camp below them.

"Daisuke, Irene and Lieutenant Yamada" some replied without any hesitation.

"Okay," Kyoko said as the three of them gathered around her, "if ya start firin' spells at them it should be enough ta make them scatter. When they do, Shinji's squad will scare off the ones that go that way, we'll take the ones that come this way. Remember, they're civilians so we want ta avoid hurtin' 'em." The whole group nodded as they began positioning themselves around the rise that they were using for cover, now they just had to wait for squad fives signal.

Daisuke and Irene began to murmur their incantations after they saw the first flash of light from the tree cover below, Haruki sat quietly, carefully taking aim.

"Hado 31, Shokaho" red fire shot from their hands, striking the ground below and sending up waves of shrapnel. There was complete panic as all the men below started scattering, in the end there was no need for any of the Soul Reapers to move, the men were obviously all spooked enough not to come back.

"Well that went better than... Look out!" Kyoko pushed the men closest to her back down the rise as a stream of fire came roaring towards them. Kyoko jumped backwards and found herself trapped against a solid wall of trees with the fire blazing in front of her. "Oh come on!!! Why is it always fire?! Why can't it be somethin' less fiery, like ice?!" Kyoko could hear the sounds of fighting on the other side, "so much for scaring them off." Kyoko was knocked back as a strong wind from someone's kido spell drove smoke into her face, she came back up gagging and completely disorientated.

Suddenly a gap was ripped through the flames, without hesitating Kyoko stumbled through; she gagged and stumbled as she came out on the other side.

"Thanks" she gasped as she looked up at the person who had cleared the way for her to get out, "Aizen." She looked around and saw that the worst of the fighting had already stopped, looking back she grinned shakily, "how many time can one person get trapped in fire in less than a month?"

"Are you okay Captain?" Aizen offered her his hand but she steadied herself without the help as she made her way down the rise to meet the rest of her squad.

"Captain! Are you ok-" Haruki's question was cut off as Shinji came up beside him.

"Sousuke! Why the hell weren't ya at the place I told ya ta be?!"

"Captain Yori got trapped in the fire and..." Shinji turned to her sharply, cutting off the rest of Aizen's explanation.

"What?! Are you okay?"

"I'm fine" Kyoko said, "just breathed in a bit too much smoke." Aizen smirked at Shinji as all of the others walked away, something inside him snapped and Shinji would have attacked him in that instant if Kyoko hadn't called back for them to hurry up. Shinji barely contained himself as the Lieutenant walked past him with a content expression on his face.

"Maybe next time Captain Hirako" Shinji span around quickly but Aizen had already used Flash Step to make it back to the rest of the group.

"_Damnit! Why is he gettin' ta me all of a sudden?"_

"_Because now he knows exactly how to get under your skin," _Sakanade told him as Kyoko turned and started walking back towards him._ "Just be careful, I know that you don't want to lose her."_

"Ya fallen asleep on ya feet or somethin'?" Kyoko asked, waving her hand in front of his face.

"Huh? No, I'm fine let's start headin' back before it gets too late."

OOO

Kyoko sighed as she sat at her desk doodling on a piece of paper, she couldn't remember ever being so bored. She looked to the side and saw her report for the assignment that they had just returned from lying on the table.

"_Guess I'd better go and give that ta Shinji, it'll at least give me somethin' ta do."_ Kyoko had just gotten out of her seat when there was a knock on her door, "I was just about ta come and see you" she said as she opened it and Shinji walked in as she turned and picked up the report.

"Huh?" He said as she handed the papers to him, "oh thanks." Kyoko gave him a quizzical look and motioned for him to sit down.

"By your reaction I'm guessin' that you came here for somethin' else," when he didn't reply she sat down beside him and put her hand in his, "what's buggin' ya?"

"... Are you okay after today Angel?"

"That's what's botherin' ya? It'll take a hell of a lot more than that ta take me down." Shinji turned and looked at her, the expression on his face making her frown uncertainly.

"That's what I'm afraid of... I was thinkin', maybe ya should take it easy for a bit, after all of the injuries you've had lately."

"Shinji, I'm a Captain, injuries come with the job, and sure I'm in squad four more than most of the others but that wouldn't be any different if I were still ya Lieutenant. What brought on all of this all of a sudden?"

"I just don't want ya gettin' hurt in any more stupid situations."

"Stupid?" Kyoko said as she crossed her arms, "what the hell is that supposed ta mean?"

"It means that ya should stop runnin' straight into the centre of danger whenever ya go on an assignment! Why can't ya just stay out of the fight once in a while?!" Shinji was on his feet clenching his hands into fists at his sides.

"What's wrong with ya? I've always been like that, why are ya suddenly gettin' so worked up about it now?" Kyoko got to her feet herself as Shinji glared at her.

"Ya nearly died two times in one month!" He shouted, starting to lose control.

"Stop bein' so damn protective! Ya makin' it sound like I can't protect myself at all!" Kyoko shouted back.

"Ya've been doin' a pretty good job of it so far! If I weren't so protective ya'd already be dead!" He staggered back as Kyoko's fist connected with his face, leaving an angry red mark.

"I get what this is about! You're pissed off about today 'cause ya weren't there ta help me out but ya Lieutenant WAS!!!" Kyoko stopped abruptly, the hurt expression on his face halting the words in her mouth.

"I see" Shinji said quietly as he turned his back on her, "I'm gunna go then." Kyoko couldn't do anything but watch shocked as he walked out of the door.

OOO

Haruki nearly tripped over Kuma as they sped around the corner, the second that they had felt the Captains' spirit pressures they had started running towards the office.

"What do you thinks happened?" Haruki asked as they turned onto the corridor and slowed down; Kuma just shook his head as they made their way cautiously towards the room. Both of them staggered back as Shinji stormed past them, his spirit pressure forcing them away from him. Kuma snapped his jaws but Shinji just ignored him.

"Shinji wait!" Kyoko called as she darted out of the room, Haruki held her back as she reached out for the Captain.

"Captain please" Haruki said quietly as she struggled against him, "just give him a moment to calm down."

"No you don't understand" tears were pouring from her eyes as she tried desperately to reach him; Kuma whine and pushed his head against her, forcing her back into the room. Suddenly all of the fight went out of her and she fell to her knees, wrapping her arms around the wolf's neck.

"Kyoko" Haruki said gently as he knelt down beside her, "what happened?" Kyoko looked up at him and Haruki could tell just by looking at her that she was in no state to talk. He stood up and walked out of the room, leaving Kuma to look after her as he followed Shinji.

"_Are ya sure it's such a good idea to confront him? He could crush you like a bug and we both know"_ His zanpakto hissed as he hurried through the barracks.

"_Quiet"_ Haruki answered, _"I've never seen her so upset before and she's not going to be giving me answers anytime soon."_

"_Hmmm I wonder what's a better idea, waitin' for Kyoko to compose herself or start a fight with Shinji and get crushed into dust? Hmmmm such a difficult decision." _Haruki hesitated, he knew that his zanpakto was right, but he hadn't forgotten the promise that he had made years ago, the promise that he would help his Captain no matter what, even though he knew that he could never repay her for all of the help that she had given him.

"_Ya a complete and utter idiot ya know that?"_

"_Shut it Akuma"_ Haruki snapped as he started forwards again. His zanpakto grumbled angrily for a few moments before falling silent, leaving Haruki to deal with the problem. Haruki broke into a run, determined to catch up before Shinji made it out of the barracks. He used Flash Step and jumped in front of the gate, stopping Shinji in his tracks. The Lieutenant took a deep breath, ignoring the anxiety growing inside of him.

"_Careful"_ Akuma said in a rare show of concern.

"What happened?" Haruki looked the Captain in the eyes, determined not to look away.

"That's none of ya business" Shinji replied coldly, "out of the way."

"If my Captain is so upset that she can't stand up it is my business" Haruki said, raising his chin determinedly, "I'm her Lieutenant and one of my jobs is to look after her."

"WHERE THE HELL WERE YA TODAY THEN?!!!"

"Huh?" Haruki shrank back, his courage fleeing as quickly as it appeared.

"WHERE WERE YA WHEN SHE WAS TRAPPED IN THAT FIRE HUH?!!"

"I tried but..."

"I DON'T WANT TA HEAR YA EXCUSES! Just, get out of the way," Haruki stepped aside as Shinji walked past, he could see the Captain barely holding back his own tears as he moved as fast as he could down the road. Haruki leaned against the tree as the crushing pressure receded.

"He's right" the Lieutenant said to himself, holding his head in his hands, "where the hell was I?"

"_Well, that went better than expected, ya not dust."_

"_AKUMA! Just one night without the snide comments is all that I ask for_!" Haruki could feel the surprise in Akuma presence as he withdrew away.

"_Man, why is everyone so upset tonight?" _Haruki sighed harshly and slowly made his way back. When he got there Kyoko had found her way into her bedroom and was fast asleep with Kuma curled protectively around her. Kuma opened one crystalline eye and growled as Haruki stepped into the room.

"She needs a blanket" he said quietly as he pulled the blanket from underneath the wolf and laid it over her. Kyoko twitched and buried her face in Kuma's white fur, taking more comfort from his presence. "Night" Haruki said quietly as Kuma rested his head and closed his eyes again. Haruki closed the door behind him as he left, he felt so useless, he had no idea what had happened and had no idea how to find out. He and Kuma trusted each other a lot more than they used to, but still they had never talked, and Haruki had the feeling that even if he begged the wolf that wasn't going to change.

"_Stop gettin' yaself down, that's my job."_

"_Why are you so talkative today Akuma."_

"_... I thought ya would appreciate the company."_

"_Well, I don't think you're wrong there" _Haruki thought as he walked back to his own room,_ "thanks."_

"_Tch, just don't expect this sentimental crap often okay." _

OOO

"Shut it off!" Kyoko grumbled as a banging sound rang out threw the Seireitei.

"Emergency! Emergency! All Captains to report to the first squad's barracks immediately! There has been an anomaly among the ninth squad! Captain Kensei Muguruma and Lieutenant Mashiro Kuna have completely vanished!"

"What they talkin' about," Kyoko mumbled into her pillow, "I can't sense them both fi..." Kyoko stopped. She couldn't sense them, not at all, when she searched all that she could sense was the wrongness that she had felt in squad four that morning.

"An emergency meeting of all Captains will commence immediately!" Kyoko leapt over Kuma and sprinted out of the room, running as fast as she could towards the meeting room. She lost track of the amount of collisions that she narrowly avoided as she sped through the Seireitei. She skidded to a stop outside the doors to the meeting room, catching her breathe before quickly making her way in and taking her place in line next to Shunsui.

Kyoko looked down the lines and noticed that she was the last one to arrive besides Zaraki, who was out on an assignment, and Kisuke. Kyoko tried to catch Shinji's eye as she focused on him but he turned away from her. She reasoned that she didn't do a very good job of concealing the hurt expression on her face because moments later Shunsui turned to her, concerned.

"Kyoko? Is everything okay between you and Shinji?" Kyoko shook her head mutely as the Head Captain stamped his staff into the ground, signalling the beginning of the meeting.

"This is an emergency! According to the reports that I have received from the squad nine reserves, we have lost all traces of Captain Kensei Muguruma and Lieutenant Mashiro Kuna, who were out in the field. The cause is unknown. We've entered a worst-case scenario. Up until yesterday, these strange events occurred only in the Rukon District, but now we must solve this matter in order to protect our honour as the Thirteen Court Guard Squads. In response, I shall send six Captains to investigate the area of the incident."

The meeting was interrupted as Kisuke ran into the room, panting from having run all the way from the twelfth squads barracks.

"You're late, Kisuke Urahara" Captain Yamamoto said as the twelfth squad Captain staggered into the room.

"Please, let me go" he said, earning many looks from his fellow Captains.

"You may not!"

"My Lieutenant is heading over there right now! I-!"

"Kisuke!" Yoruichi shouted, cutting him of and silencing him. "You're embarrsing yourself! Get your act together! You ordered your Lieutenant to go didn't you?! Don't you see that by acting this way you're insulting her?!"

"Come on don't just stand there" Shunsui said as he walked over, taking the other man's arm and leading him back, "get in line."

"As I was saying" the Head Captain continued, "Captain Rojuro Ootoribashi from squad three, Captain Shinji Hirako from squad five, Captain Love Aikawa from squad seven, and Captain Kyoko Yori from squad ten. The four of you shall investigate the area." Shinji shifted angrily after the announcement, throwing a quick glance at Kyoko. "Is there something wrong Captain Hirako?"

"No Head Captain."

"Good. In that case, Captain Yoruichi Shihoin from squad two shall stay on standby until further orders are issued, Captain Genrei Kuchiki from the squad six, Captain Shunsui Kyoraku from squad eight and Captain Jushiro Ukitake from squad thirteen shall protect the Seireitei! Captain Retsu Unohana from squad four shall prepare to heal the injured and wait at the infirmary."

"One moment, Head Captain" Unohana interrupted unexpectedly. "If I am to heal the injured, wouldn't it be best if I went out on the field as well?"

"Since we do not know what is happening, we cannot afford to send the head of the medical corps out, we have Captain Yori to help with the injured at the location, and I will also send someone else. Enter!" The double doors of the meeting room opened and everyone turned to see who the new arrivals were.

"Tessai Tsukabishi?" Ukitake said as the Captain of the Kido corps and his Lieutenant entered the room, "it's been a while since he made a public appearance."

"So this is gunna be a pretty big deal, isn't it? Hoo boy..." Shunsui said.

"It's worse than I thought" Kyoko agreed as the new arrivals stopped in front of them all.

"I believe you already know the situation" the Head Captain addressed them. "I want both of you to go out and investigate.

"Hey, Old Yama" Shunsui said after a moments silence, "sorry, but don't you think that it's a bad idea to send out the Captain and the Lieutenant of the Kido Corps when we don't know what is out there?"

"Then what would you do?" Captain Yamamoto answered.

"I'd send my Lieutenant."

"Are you going to get her now?" Ukitake asked, shocked.

"Sure am" Shunsui replied, "hey Lisa!"

"What?" Lisa said as she jumped up to the window.

"See?" Shunsui said smugly as he pointed behind him. "I've told you not to spy on us during the meetings haven't I?"

"I can't help it! It human nature, get over it."

"You heard?"

"Sure did."

"Can you handle it?"

"You bet."

"Then please do."

"I can't believe you," the Head Captain said as Lisa disappeared from view, Kyoko immediately kept the presence of her spirit energy in focus, the same as what she was doing for Hiyori.

"Hey, big happenings like this only come along once in a blue moon, as her superior I want her to experience this first hand. You know what I mean right? She'll be fine! Despite her appearance Lisa is actually pretty strong. So would you let her go in your stead, Captain of the Kido Corps?" Shunsui asked as he turned back towards the new comers.

"I don't mind" Tessai replied "I'm going to take you up on this offer and go back to bed." He gave Kisuke a concerned look before turning and walking away.

"As such," the Head Captain concluded, "Rojuro Ootoribashi, Shinji Hirako, Love Aikawa, Kyoko Yori, Hachigen Ushoda and Lisa Yodomaru, you are now part of a special squad tasked with discovering the cause of the vanishing souls." They all turned and bowed before leaving the meeting room, using flash step to reach the location as quickly as possible.

Shinji and Kyoko quickly sped ahead of the others, even overtaking Lisa, who quickly switched from normal running to Flash Step as they rushed past. The two of them travelled in stony silence, they both looked at each other at different interval but never caught each other's eyes. As they travelled Kyoko felt a strange presence appear in the forest, and reluctantly she realised that she would have to be the one to break the silence.

"Shinji, there's somethin' in the woods" he turned his head towards her slightly, so she knew that he was listening, "I'm gunna go check it out."

"No, stay here where I can keep an eye on you" Kyoko held back a shout as she glared at his back; she wasn't someone that he could just order around like that.

"I'm not your subordinate anymore; I don't have ta listen to you!" She had changed direction and was underneath the branches of the first line of trees before he even had a chance to realise what she had said. She could her him shouting after her but she just kept running, too angry and hurt to stop. She wasn't sure how long or how far she ran, but eventually she came to a particularly thick grove of trees and slowed to a halt.

She took a deep breath and let the night breeze wash over her face and through her hair. The strange spirit pressure suddenly flared and she only just drew her sword in time to bloke a strike to the ribs. The creature that had attacked sprang back and hissed angrily, not wasting any time it darted forwards and jumped into the air, raining down powerful and precise kicks on Kyoko, testing all of her defences.

The creature jumped back to its original position and studied her closely, deciding that she was a tougher opponent than first anticipated. Moonlight strained through the tree branches as the clouds drifted away, the light revealed a female human shape with white armour over her legs and a bug-like white mask. Kyoko gasped as he recognised the green hair and the distinctive Soul Reaper uniform.

"Mashiro?!" As if responding to her name the hollow charged forwards again, sparks flew into the air as Kyoko brought up her sword blocking a series of kicks that would have otherwise left her with two crippled legs. "Mashiro it's me!" Kyoko cried as she attacked in return, striking and slashing, forcing her opponent to go on the defensive. Mashiro brought up her arm to defend herself and they locked against each other, both struggled to gain the upper hand as Kyoko looked deep into Mashiro's eyes. "Don't you remember me?"

The hollow hissed and disconnected, shaking her head as she backed away, Kyoko took the distraction as a chance to check on the others and found that they were also fighting a strange creature like this one, the horrible sinking feeling in her stomach confirmed her fears that the other creature was Kensei.

A piercing roar echoed through the trees from the direction that the others were fighting. Mashiro stopped and turned towards the sound, flinging back her head she roared in reply before sprinting off to assist her comrade.

"Crap" Kyoko growled as she made to go after her, "come ba-!" The hollow had been a distraction; she hadn't sensed the enemy behind her until seconds after the distraction had left. She didn't have time to bloke; she didn't have time to react at all. Kyoko gasped as a blade came down heavily across her back, the strike forced her to her hands and knees, shaking uncontrollably as hot blood flowed down her sides, soaking into her clothes and the forest floor below.

"Bast...ard..." Kyoko growled as her assailant walked into her line of sight, "Tosen... you, traitorous... scum..."

"Such harsh words Captain Yori, please don't blame Kaname for this, he was mearly following orders."

"Tch, I shoulda... Know that he... wasn't the mastermind... Behind this. Ya never were quite... thrust worthy... Aizen..." Kyoko narrowed her eyes hatefully as the Lietenant and Third Seat of squad five also walked into her view, Aizen smiled down at her calmly, comfortable that she was now nowhere near a threat.

"I'm surprised at you Captain, you're normally so gracious, did you forget that I saved your life today. Then again" Aizen smirked as he looked down at her, "I only saved you because I thought that it would be convenient."

"What... The hell... Is that... Supposed to mean?"

"It was a very convenient situation in which I could get my Captain severely agitated; I reasoned that the more antagonistic you were towards each other the easier it would be to pick you off one by one tonight." Kyoko shook with anger as she tried to stagger precariously to her feet.

"It was... your fault... IT WAS YOU!!!" Kyoko was forced back to the ground as a white substance exploded its way out of her mouth, covering the left side of her face. "What the... GAAAAAAAAAAHH!!!" Kyoko screamed as the substance clawed across her face, she could feel it inching across more every second, burning.

"Hmm, it appears that with this case the hollowfication process progresses quicker if the subject is agitated, though we will have to test it on one of the others to see if it is the same in all cases."

"Hollowfication?... What do ya... Mean? What did... ya don ta... us?" Kyoko questioned as Aizen turned his attention back to her.

"You don't need to know." He replied.

"Don't give me... That crap... AAAAHHHH!!!" Kyoko writhed in pain as the thing on her face spread faster, it was starting to make her disorientated; she shrank back when an alien presence appeared in her soul, laughing cruelly as it attacked her unprepared zanpakto.

"_Kyoko!"_ Amaya cried as the new creature crashed down on her, ripping another scream from Kyoko's lungs as she regained awareness in the world, a scream which was answered by the roars of the other hollow creatures.

"Lord Aizen?" Tosen questioned as the roars started to become more aggressive.

"Yes, it's time that we went to deal with the other subjects" Aizen was talking more to Kyoko than to his suborninates as she glared up at him hatefully. "Don't worry, I'll make sure to tell Captain Hirako that you are here, if you're lucky, he might even find you." Kyoko's eyes filled with fear when he said that, it wouldn't be long before she became like Mashiro and Kensei, if Shinji found her like that... "Farewell, Captain Yori" Aizen said as he turned his back on her and walked away.

"Get back... Get back here ya bastard... GAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHH!!!!!!!" Demented laughter filled her mind as Kyoko clutched her head, trying to bloke it out.

"_What the hell ya doin'?! Ya can't bloke me out like that ya moron, know if ya don't mind, this body belongs to me. Hand it over!"_

"Screw you..." Kyoko hissed through gritted teeth, using more force than she had believed she possessed she forced the hollow further away, far enough to keep it at bay for a short time. Using her sword for support she slowly forced herself to her feet, ignoring the pain from the hollowfication and the dull pain from the wound in her back. She didn't perceive time at all as she stumbled through the branches, all she knew was that she was suddenly at the edge of the trees again, looking out at a scene that made the breathe catch in her throat.

The investigation squad were all scattered across the field, all of their faces being engulfed by the same substance that engulfed hers. Aizen, Ichimaru and Tosen all stood in front of a lone Soul Reaper, also under the effects of the hollowfication. Kyoko's heart burst with pride as she watched Shinji face them, refusing to back down. She froze with terror when she saw Hiyori, whose face was completely covered by a mask, charge forwards towards Aizen. Shinji shouted out but it was too late, Hiyori fell to the ground with a new wound opened up across her chest, leaving her unable to move.

"Hi... yori..." Kyoko's strangled gasp caught the attention of all of them as she staggered towards her fallen friend. "Hiyo... ri..."

"No!"Shinji shouted as she came closer, "Kyoko get out of here!" Kyoko halted uncertainly, looking up she locked eyes with him and changed direction stumbling towards him instead.

"Shinji... I..."

"How touching" Tosen said as he stepped beside Kyoko.

"STOP!" Kyoko heard her ribs crack as Tosen drove the hilt of his sword into her chest; she fell to the ground at his feet, gasping raggedly.

"Interesting," she heard Aizen say, "I'm impressed that she managed to find her way here, she is stronger than I had originally thought." Kyoko cringed as she felt cold fingers on her neck tracing down to the slash on her back, she was so exhausted that she couldn't stop a whimper as they touched the top of the wound, "and I must admit she is pretty, I might just keep her for myself."

"Get away from her!" Kyoko stretched out her hand at the sound of his voice; she cried out as the cold hand moved from her back and took her own in an iron grip.

"What's wrong Captain Hirako? I'm surprised that you still care about her after what I just told you, about how she came to me after I saved her from that fire. She didn't waste time in telling me how useless she thought you were, at least during the intervals when we weren't too busy. To tell you the truth I'm surprised that she found time to talk at all considering the way that she had herself wrapped around me." All that Kyoko could do was snarl weakly with rage at the lies, she wanted desperately to take her zanpakto and rip Aizen to pieces. She couldn't see Shinji's face but she couldn't hear a reply either, she started to panic, he didn't actually believe what the Lieutenant was saying did he? She bared her teeth, deciding that she might as well put the developing fangs from her hollowfication to good use.

She sprang forwards, but her teeth only met empty air as the hand was quickly snapped away.

"Hmm, perhaps I won't keep her then," Aizen said disappointedly as Gin's foot connected solidly with Kyoko's jaw. "I doubt that she will survive with that back wound anyway." As if this was an order, Tosen raised his foot and levelled it over Kyoko's back.

"NO!" Shinji's shout was blotted out by Kyoko's blood curdling shriek as Tosen brought his foot down heavily on the wound. The scream turned into a roar as the sudden pain broke her control and the hollow came storming back, more powerful and aggressive than before. The pressure on her back receded and Kyoko vaguely felt the presence of two new arrivals. The hollow laughed manically as it drew her further away. She stretched out her hand, trying desperately to reach him before she lost completely.

"Shin...ji..." Darkness...

* * *

**Kuma + early mornings=.... just get the hell outta his way lol**

**Man writing scenes from the anime is sooooooo tedious! I was trying to avoid using the episodes (I managed it with the hollowfication wow!) but with the Captain's meeting it really couldn't be helped.**

**I tried, and considering he is now one of my fav OCs along with Kyoko, and i think i succeeded in getting Haruki more involved with the story, i think having alot of interaction with his ever luvable zanpakto helped most lol.**

**Speaking of the zanpakto there are going to be some changes to their designs that are in Insomnia, the only thing that is really changing about Amaya is that her costume is changing so that you can actually see her claws and her eyes and she's gunna be more child like. Akuma no Gekitotsu (Haruki's zanpakto) it changing design completely, i'm gunna be putting character sheets of him up on deviant in a couple days so i will post a message when they are up.**

**I'm pretty happy with how the hollowfication scene went, though i think i coulda done better with Aizen, i just thought that the part where he's lying about Kyoko to Shinji just seemed like the kinda thing that he would do, also makes the story more interesting and to add to that starts to go towards the darker themes thing that i am aiming for.**

**Right, i think thats everything, PLS REVIEW!!!!! oh and i am only gunna update now if i have at least 1 review per chapter.**

**P.S long chapter and long authors comments are looooooooooong lol**


	5. Chapter 5

**Disclaimer: i do not own Bleach or its characters, i do own Haruki, Akuma, Kyoko, Kuma**

**OMG last chapter *does happy dance!!!!***

* * *

Chapter 5

From his post on the roof of the barracks Haruki could clearly see Kisuke and Tessai as they made their way through the trees bordering the road.

"_I wonder what they're up to."_

"_Knowin' Urahara, I'd say no good... So, ya gunna do anythin' about it?" _

"_No, I couldn't stop them even if I tried,"_ Haruki looked up at the sky as the full moon broke through the clouds, bathing the whole of squad ten in silver light.

"_Ya worried, I can tell" _Akuma said knowingly, _"I can't tell who ya more worried about though, Kyoko or that babe Lisa."_ Haruki blushed furiously, making Akuma laugh scornfully, _"I'm part of ya soul, ya can't hide from me. Though sometimes there are some things that I wish I could bloke out."_

"_Wh-What's that supposed to mean?!"_

"_Seriously, some of the thing's ya think of, no wonder ya single."_

"_Shut your mouth, pervert!"_ Haruki had never wished so much that his zanpakto would just stop talking.

"I'm_ the pervert?!"_ Akuma made no effort to hide his smugness as Haruki looked down at the floor, seriously considering jumping and knocking himself out, just to shut Akuma up. _"That's not a very nice thing ta think."_

"Haruki?" Rangiku walked along the roof and sat down beside him, "do you think the Captain's okay?"

"Of course she is; why wouldn't she be?" Haruki replied, he looked down at her in confusion when she started babbling incoherently, the only thing that he could clearly make out was, "Please don't tell the Captain."

"Rangiku! Rangiku slow down! Start from the beginning." It took the girl a moment to calm down enough so that Haruki could understand what she was saying.

"Earlier I went to see Kyoko, I needed some help filling out a report that I was doing. Please don't tell her, but Captain Hirako was there and..."

"You heard their argument," Rangiku nodded miserably. "Don't worry," Haruki told her reassuringly, "I won't tell Kyoko, don't worry about those two either, they'll sort it out between them in a couple days."

"_Hypocrite."_

"_Shut up Akuma!"_ The moon moved across the night sky as the two of them sat there in silence, both worrying about the investigation squad, and hoping that they would come back uninjured.

The rising sun's light stung Haruki's eyes as he sat up groggily, looking around he remembered that Rangiku had gone off to bed a couple of hours after she had arrived, he had meant to go to bed as well, but instead he had fallen asleep on the roof minutes after the girl left. A shadow fell over him and he looked up sleepily, meeting the yellow gaze of the squad two Captain herself.

"Haruki, I need you to come with me, it's urgent." Hoping for something doesn't always make it happen.

OOO

Haruki looked down in complete shock at the nine of them lying on the floor, all of their faces covered by intimidating white masks.

"I don't know what's happened to them," Yoruichi said as she knelt down beside Rose and lifted him carefully off of the ground, moving his head so that he would not stab her neck with the bird-like mask. "All I know is that Kisuke and Tessai were trying to help them and they got arrested for it. I also know that unless we move them quickly all of them face being executed."

"Why did you come to me?" Haruki asked his hands shook at his sides; he resented the fact that he couldn't make them stop. Yoruichi turned and looked him in the eye.

"Because you are the only person that I know I can trust and who I know will be able to handle this." Haruki gulped and nodded, he stepped forwards and picked up Lisa, he was suddenly filled with anger as he looked down at her and the diamond shaped mask that covered her face. "Follow me." Haruki soon fell behind Yoruichi, forcing her to slow down so that he could keep her in sight.

Soon they reached the entrance to a cave and wasted no time in making their way down the tunnel. Haruki gasped in amazement as they came out into a wide desert area scattered with large boulders and rocks.

"This place is amazing!" He said as Yoruichi lead him up to one of the taller cliffs, where he was surprised to see Kuma pacing impatiently. "What's Kuma doing here?"

"I've asked him to guard the gigai's that I retrieved from the squad twelve barracks; would you be able to stand and guard this place while we go and collect the others?" Kuma nodded his head at Yoruichi's question, but as she and Haruki turned to leave he stepped in front of them, glaring threateningly. "I promise, I will explain everything to you, but time is too important to waste now. I'll explain once we have everyone safely here." Kuma sniffed and moved out of the way, seeing the wisdom in Yoruichi's words.

When they got back to the barracks Yoruichi reached down to pick up Kyoko but Haruki put his hand on her shoulder, stopping her.

"Does Kuma know that she's here?" He asked her as she straightened up.

"He knows that she is here but not what has happened, though it won't take him long to figure it out" Yoruichi replied, her eyes widened when she realised what Haruki was trying to say.

"We'll take Kyoko last" Haruki said as he walked over to Hachi and took one of his arms, "if Kuma goes into a rage there are only three people who can control him without seriously injuring him or just making things worse, and all three of them are lying over there" Haruki said as he tilted his head towards Hiyori, Kyoko and Shinji.

As they moved back and forth between the locations Haruki could see Kuma growing more and more anxious. Finally Kyoko was the only one left, Haruki picked her up and quickly left the barracks behind, he was outside the entrance to the cave when he noticed that Yoruichi had disappeared. He glanced behind him but she was nowhere in sight, he decided that taking care of his injured friends was more important. He was already covered in blood from the other's wounds and knew that the best thing to do at that moment was get them seen to.

Kuma's eyes were shining angrily as Haruki walked slowly towards him.

"Kuma stay calm" the Lieutenant said quietly as he walked over to where Shinji was lying, "the worst thing that could happen is us being discovered, please just stay here and stay calm." Haruki knelt down and placed Kyoko gently next to Shinji, as she slid out of his arms Haruki nearly retched at the amount of her blood that coated his uniform.

That was too much for Kuma, with a deafening snarl he bolted for the exit. Without thinking Haruki sprang after him and tackled the wolf to the ground, both of them tumbled down the rocks, both fighting to gain the advantage. When they hit the base of the cliff Kuma was standing over Haruki with his fangs inches from the man's throat, Haruki's knuckles turned white with strain as he gripped Kuma's horns, barely keeping the glistening fangs away from his neck. Instinctively he remembered everything that Kyoko had told him to do if he ended up in a situation like this. He made himself as small as possible, which wasn't difficult compared to Kuma's bulk, he held the wolf's furious gaze for a second before turning his eyes away. It took more will power than he thought possible but slowly he stretched out his neck, leaving his throat exposed; and there he had been thinking that being submissive to an angry member of squad eleven was a bitch; that was nothing compared to this.

"Please calm down; you'll only make things worse if you go tearing into the Seireitei like that, besides you need to guards this place to make sure that nothing else happens to Kyoko and the others." He spoke quietly and briefly caught Kuma's gaze before letting his eyes slide away again. Slowly, the wolf's breathing became more even and the pressure that he had been putting on Haruki's arms lessened, he sighed and stepped off of his captive as Yoruichi returned, followed by Kisuke and Tessai.

"Thankyou, Yoruichi" he heard Kisuke say as the two of them made their way back up the cliff.

"No need to thank me," Yoruichi replied as she unwrapped a scarf from around her head, "I'll smack you later for not coming to get me last night. We brought all nine of them here; I also brought all of the new gigais that you've been working on. Now start talking! I want whatever strategy you thought up for the worst case scenario back when you first heard about this whole incident from Hirako." Kisuke looked at her with a slightly lost expression on his face, Yoruichi stared him down.

"So you've completely seen through me" he said eventually with a grin on his face, "what a sneaky woman."

"Like you're one to talk" she replied.

"Tessai, could you please freeze time for Hirako and the others, and put level two and three barriers around this area." He looked at Haruki as he walked up beside them before talking to Tessai again, "within the next twenty hours, I'll make ones for the three of us and the nine of them, twelve gigais which will completely cut off our reiatsu."

"Should I go back to Seireitei and see if I can cause a distraction?" Haruki asked, feeling very cut out in the conversation between the Captains.

"What are you talking about?" Kisuke turned to him with a confused expression on his face, "one of the gigais is for you, did you really expect us to leave you here to take all of the damage? Aizen will know by now that you helped us, if you go back now you'll be killed, either you'll be executed or Aizen will kill you, either way it's the same result. You're coming with us."

"What about Yoruichi?" Tessai asked.

"Don't worry about me" Yoruichi said calmly, "I can get away on my own."

"We'll hide in the real world and take our time while we deal with this problem," Kisuke continued, "we'll do it; we'll find a way to reverse hollowfication. Haruki, would you take a look at their wounds; some of them were hurt pretty badly. You won't be able to heal them once Tessai has frozen time, but its best that you know what there is to deal with."

OOO

Haruki slumped down on the sofa exhausted; healing nine people with serious injuries had turned out to be more stressful than he had thought. It had been a whole month since they had fled from the Soul Society and taken up refuge in the abandoned warehouse. Kisuke's base in the human world had looked neglected when they arrived but now it looked as homey as an abandoned warehouse could, with a sofa and numerous chairs scattered around the main room, a basic kitchen and a multitude of bedrooms, each of which was being occupied by one of the hollowfication victims.

Haruki rubbed his green eyes tiredly as he turned on his back and stared up at the high ceiling; over the month Lisa, Kyoko and the others had all been confined to a room each, when he needed to see to their injuries they always had to be knocked out and restrained, Haruki had found out the hard way what would happen if they weren't; if Tessai hadn't been with him at the time Hiyori would have easily ripped his head clean off of his shoulders.

"Why the hell is it taking so long to find a solution to this?!" Haruki suddenly shouted as he drove his fist into the back of the sofa.

"These things aren't easy to reverse" Kisuke said as he walked into the room and sat down in one of the chairs, he put his head in his hands and sighed, looking even more exhausted than Haruki did. "How well are they healing?"

"Except for obvious problems they're otherwise pretty much completely healthy, except for Kyoko. I spent nearly all of my career as a Soul Reaper in the medical corps and I can honestly tell you that I have never seen a sword wound that bad, and it doesn't help that the hollow's reiatsu isn't reacting well to my kido." Haruki flipped back over and looked directly at Kisuke, "if we don't reverse this soon she isn't going to survive. What do you know so far?"

"There isn't much to it really" Kisuke said as he relaxed back into the chair, "their bodies act on their own as a normal hollow would while their souls reside in their inner worlds, being suppressed by the hollow's souls. I don't want to use the Hogyoku too soon; if I tear down the walls between them the hollows could kill them instantly. We just have to trust that they can keep fighting for now."

Kisuke looked deep in thought while Haruki went through what the scientist had told him. He knew that this was a long and taxing scenario on Kisuke and all of them, but he also knew that if they didn't think of something soon Kyoko would definitely die. There was also Kuma to think about; when they had arrived at the warehouse he had also taken residence in one of the bedroom, he had not come out once since and Haruki was starting to worry about him. Every day the wolf was becoming quieter and eating less and less food.

"Fight..." Kisuke sprang to his feet, startling Haruki out of his thoughts as he walked quickly out of the room, returning swiftly a few minutes later with Tessai and Yoruichi. "Haruki, Tessai, I need you to get Kyoko and move her down to the training ground, afterwards restrain her however you see necessary and place level three barriers around her. Yoruichi, you come and help me." Without answering any of their half asked question the blonde man rushed from the room, Yoruichi close at his heels.

OOO

The Hogyoku glowed ominously as Kisuke held it out towards the barrier, there was a bright flash and a deafening roar as the kido spell that held Kyoko down incinerated; the hollow glared hatefully at them as it stumbled to its feet, its black rimmed yellow irises glowed madly through its green marked white mask. The mask was an oval with tapering tips that covered her whole face, the eyes slits were a continuous cross shaped opening in the centre of the mask, narrow tapering oval discs rimmed the eyes, extending slightly out from the main mask. Horns extended from above each eye, rimming the dark green oval markings that decorated the forehead, fangs added to the terrifying appearance as the hollow stalking around the training area, unable to reach the Soul Reapers through the barriers.

"What now?" Haruki asked as kisuke stepped forwards.

"We fight the hollow's body while Kyoko fights it's soul, if my theory is correct and she defeats it, she will probably turn back to normal," he answered.

"What if she doesn't defeat it?" Haruki continued. Kisuke hesitated before answering.

"If we don't try something she'll die soon anyway." Without another word Kisuke stepped through the barrier.

The hollow's head snapped around, instantly focusing on Kisuke as he walked towards it.

"I see that you're still as observant as ever" Kisuke said, light shone off of Benihime's blade as he swung the sword in a wide arc, taking his time to examine the hollow and see how it would react. Kisuke was taken aback as the hollow sprang forwards immediately, reaching newly formed claws towards his throat. He dodged and moved behind the hollow, this was obviously going to be a lot different to fighting Kyoko herself, all of the patience and preciseness that she usually put into her battles was gone.

The hollow snarled as a hole ripped its way right through her chest, as the hole formed a pair of thin white plated arms grew from underneath her main ones, adding extra deadly weapons to her weaponry. Kisuke braced himself as the hollow recovered itself and charged again, he noted that the hollow was moving much slower than Kyoko would have, he took his time in dodging away from the attack. The fist connected with the boulder just beside his head, Kisuke's eyes widened in surprise at the amount of damage the strike had caused, the boulder had been cracked half way through. Grimacing he swung Benihime around in a counter attack; sparks flew into the air as the hollow brought its bare arm up to bloke the attack.

They continued fighting like that for fifteen minutes, every minute the hollow kept transforming, so much so that Kisuke began to fear that he had been wrong, that this wasn't going to work. The hollow swung a clawed hand out viciously, slicing Kisuke's arm and sending him staggering back. The hollow stopped and roared triumphantly before moving in to finish him off. Yoruichi kicked it in the back and sent it flying awkwardly over his head. The hollow shrieked in agony and writhed on the floor, sending shard of rock into the air as it pounded the ground.

"Damn" Yoruichi said as she stood beside him, "I didn't mean to hurt her that much."

"Fighting this one, I think fifteen minutes is going to be the limit for all of us" Kisuke gasped.

"Is it working?" Yoruichi asked anxiously. Kisuke shook his head mutely.

"We'll go through all four of us for fifteen minutes, if she hasn't defeated the hollow by then, we'll have to presume that she won't defeat the hollow at all, and we'll have no choice but to kill her."

OOO

Kyoko opened her eyes and glared at her mirror image as she walked across the dark red water of her inner world towards her. The moon's silver light shone off of the woman's ink black hair and malicious black and yellow eyes; her pale skin looked ghostly in the light.

"So they finally decided ta risk usin' that Hogyoku thing did they? Heh, they must be gettin' desperate, who would have thought that ya would make friends with such idiots."

"Idiots, huh?" Kyoko replied as her inner hollow leapt onto one of the higher rock platforms, "I would have thought that ya would find this convenient, know ya don't have ta tear down that wall yourself."

"Hmmm, I guess that's true" the hollow said as she drew a zanpakto, it looked identical to Amaya, except the hilt was green rather than red and the blade was pitch black. "I wonder if you'll be able ta forgive them."

"What the hell ya talkin' about?" Kyoko snapped as she drew her own sword.

"'Cause of them I don't have ta waste loads of energy destroyin' that wall. Which means..." The hollow jumped off of the rock and swung her sword at Kyoko's head. Kyoko cried out as she blocked the attack and realised that the hollow was a lot stronger than she looked. "Killin' you will be a much easier job!"

The hollow swung her blade around again; Kyoko side stepped and leapt from rock to rock, trying to put distance between herself and her enemy, a feat which she was surprised to see didn't take long.

"Get back here and fight me!!!" The hollow shrieked as she struggled to keep the fleeing Soul Reaper in sight, "ya really think runnin' away from me is gunna solve this?!!"

"What's wrong?" Kyoko called back, seeing an opportunity to gain the advantage, "can't ya keep up?"

"SHUT IT!!!" She stopped in her tracks and pointed her clenched fist in Kyoko direction. "CERO!!!!!!" The green energy beam struck the rocks to Kyoko's right, smashing them to splinters.

"I can't believe that ya aim is even worse than mine!" The Soul Reaper called back; she didn't notice the flying debris from the explosion until it had struck her in the head and sent her tumbling down to the red-mist coated ground.

"Wow" Kyoko scrambled back to her feet as her copy leapt down in front of her, a smug expression on her face. "I can't believe that ya got taken out by a piece of rock!" She laughed as she crashed into Kyoko; sparks littered the air as the two of them fought against each other, trying to gain the upper hand.

"Ya think that ya can beat me in a contest of pure strength? Ha! For a Captain ya still have a lot of shit ta learn about the world. Too bad, it's not gunna matter soon." The hollow rushed forwards and crushed Kyoko against one of the rocks. She smirked as the Soul Reaper struggled but couldn't get loose.

"Hado 33! Sokatsui!" The hollow squealed as she clawed at her eyes, Kyoko took the opening and darted away, she was half way back up the rocks when a heavy weight fell on her and dragged her back down. She heard a clattering sound as her sword fell into the shadows, completely out of her reach. The hollow snarled as she lifted Kyoko against the cliff by the neck of her shirt. Kyoko grunted as a powerful fist connected with her face, she could tell by the pain and by the amount of blood running into her mouth that her nose had broken instantly.

"Enough of the cheap tricks; without ya sword ya dead, now all I have ta do is enjoy it." Kyoko was thrown to the ground by her double ganger, she screamed as her opposite stomped on her back, pinning her down. "Awful bit of déjà vu there, wouldn't ya say?" The hollow said as she twisted her foot sharply between Kyoko's shoulder blades, ripping another scream from her throat. Flash backs of that night a month ago, cold hands on her arm, a foot pinning her to the ground. Couldn't get out. Couldn't move. Couldn't move. Couldn't move...

"What's this?" The hollow purred in Kyoko's ear, "is the little Soul Reaper afraid?"

OOO

The only thing left of his Captain was the mess of dark brown hair falling over the creature's shoulders. Haruki gritted his teeth as the hollow whipped out its long, snake like tail; he brought his zanpakto up to bloke the attack but was too slow. The tail smashed through the shaft of the spear and sent it scattering across the field in splinters.

"Shit!" Haruki cursed as the creature stormed forwards and drove its fist into his stomach, sending him to his knees. "Kyoko..." Haruki gasped as the hollow stood over him, "Kyoko, you can beat this; you can't lose. There's too much to leave behind." Haruki looked up into the hollow's yellow eyes, hoping to see his Captain in there. He cried out as the creature swung at him and sent him flying across the ground.

Haruki gagged as he struggled to his hands and knees, he froze as a dark shadow fell over him...

OOO

The rock face shivered as Kyoko crashed against it. She slumped limply to the ground as the hollow walked leisurely towards her, taking all of the time that she wanted.

"Well isn't that interstin'" she said after pausing for a second. She knelt down in front of Kyoko and grabbed her chin, forcing their eyes to meet. "Do ya want me ta tell ya what's goin' on outside? That little Lieutenant of yours is tryin' ta call you back!" The hollow laughed as if it was the funniest joke she had ever heard. Kyoko clenched her hands angrily, but she couldn't do anything, she no longer had the strength to move at all.

"Oh I can't wait to see their faces! The faces of those four idiots tryin' ta save you! Can't you imagine what they'll look like when they realise that ya gunna rip them ta pieces? Hahaha, I can't wait!" The hollow smirked as a new thought came to her, "oh, and not ta forget those other hollows. They'll have ta go to, can't have too much competition, ya know how it is."

"Don't... Go... Near them..."

"Hmmm?" Kyoko tried to stand up only to be pushed back down by the hollows hand on her stomach. "Oh of course!" She said happily, "that hollow with the pharaoh mask is your lover isn't he? Haha! I'll have ta make sure ta really take my time with him; I think I'll leave him till last; it'll be easier ta make sure that ya watch that way. I'm pretty sure I can do that; if ya lucky I might leave enough life in him so that he can call ya the stupid little nickname before he dies. Can you hear it?" The hollow asked as she leaned closer, she hadn't realised that Kyoko's hand had found the hilt of her sword and wrapped tightly around it.

"Can you hear it?" She asked again, "I sure can, I can already hear him screamin'!" Blood rushed into the air. The hollow backed away and cursed, clutching a bleeding shoulder.

"You won't touch him" Kyoko said as she used the wall to help support her back to her feet, "you won't touch any of them." Blood dripped off of her sword as she swung it around, "this ends now."

"Fine by me" the hollow hissed as she gripped her own sword and charged forwards.

OOO

"Haru...Ki...?" Haruki looked up in surprise as the hollow backed away sharply, thrashing around and wildly clawing at the mask on its face. There was an ear-splitting roar as cracks began to appear all long the creature's body and its skin and extra limbs began to crumble off, shattering to dust as they struck the ground.

Kyoko looked at him blankly as she stepped precariously away from the creature remains, she was covered in blood and Haruki noticed that she had some broken ribs as well as a broken nose. His relief turned to concern as she suddenly crumpled to the ground, unable to hold her own weight.

"Kyoko!" Haruki ran towards her, forgetting any possible danger as he knelt down at her side.

"Haruki?... You... Okay?..."

"I'm fine" he replied, carefully not letting her see the bleeding gash on his arm.

"Th-Thank... You... Haruki..."

OOO

Kyoko ground her teeth as blood flowed from her shoulder to the dark ground, she could feel the pain slowly crawling down her arm as she struggled to stay standing.

"Bitch!" Blood sprayed from the hollow's mouth as she cursed foully; "damn you..." Black shadows erupted from the point of Kyoko's blade were it had passed through the hollow's chest. "I guess, this mean ya stronger..." she sounded disgusted as she began to fade away, her body ripping into wisps of black shadow. "I'll leave for now, but you and that little brat of a zanpakto remember this. The second I see the slightest sliver of weakness, I'll be back. Mark my words, next time I'll tear ya world apart in front ya eyes 'n' make ya suffer every second of it!"

"We'll see" Kyoko said as her hollow disappeared.

OOO

"Kuma" Kyoko said exasperatedly as the white wolf shifted and leaned against her, "personal space is a wonderful thing." Kuma grinned at her and rested his head in her lap, his tail wagging slightly. Haruki smiled and tentatively patted the wolf's back as he took the last of the bandages off of Kyoko's back. He breathed in sharply when he saw the long, knotted scar that ran from the base of her neck right down to her right hip. Two months had healed the wound but no amount of time would ever erase a scar like that.

"Is it bad?" Kyoko asked quietly. "Tell me the truth Haruki." When he remained quite she got to her feet and walked over to the set of mirrors set up on the other side of the room. Kuma grumbled angrily at being disturbed but stopped abruptly when he saw Kyoko. She turned and slowly walked back to them, a vaguely blank expression on her face as she tried to hide her emotions.

"Have you talked to Shinji yet?" Haruki asked from outside the door as Kyoko got changed, the prolonged silence from inside the room gave him more of an answer than words would have. "Why are you avoiding him?" Haruki continued, "if you just talk you'll be able to sort everything out. Shinji might start acting like himself rather than the zombie that seems to have replaced him lately." Silence. "I'm going to go for a walk" Haruki called as he walked away.

Kyoko sighed and rubbed her eyes as she exited the room; it took her a moment to realise that Kuma had disappeared as well. She didn't think much of it as she walked through the warehouse, their new home; that wolf was always wandering off on his own. Love and Rose walked past her as she walked through the door into the main room, as she looked up to say hello she saw the reason that they had left when she entered.

Shinji was looking at her uncertainly as he sat cross-legged on the sofa; without thinking Kyoko walked forwards and wrapped her arms around him, she buried her face in his chest as she hugged him as closely as she could, afraid of the moment when he would make her let go. Tears slid down her face as she felt him return her embrace.

"It wasn't true" Kyoko said quietly as she looked him in the eye, "he was lyin'... I wouldn't... I couldn't..."

"I know," Shinji replied as he pulled her closer to him, "I didn't believe him from the beginnin'; though Haruki practically attackin' helped clear my head a lot to."

"He what?" Kyoko asked, astounded.

"If Lisa hadn't been there I think he would have actually tried ta hit me." Kyoko smiled, she had never thought that Haruki would actually go that far.

"I'm sorry" Kyoko continued, "about what I said before, I shouldn't have..."

"Angel" Shinji interrupted, "ya don't have ta say sorry." He cut off her reply by pressing his lips to hers, ending their conversation there.

OOO

"Hey" Lisa called as she walked along the edge of the river, the orange light of the sunset reflected on her glasses as she turned and sat on the ground next to Haruki.

"Hi" he replied as she settled next to him, "errr, nice sunset huh?" He said, at a complete loss at what else to say.

"Yeah" Lisa replied as she turned to look at him, "what are you doing out here anyway?"

"Just felt like going for a walk. Has Kyoko talked to Shinji yet?" He asked after a moment's pause.

"If you count kissing each other's faces off as talking then yeah" Lisa replied, finding it impossible to keep the smile off of her face.

"Well that's one problem solved anyway" Haruki sighed as he lay back and starred up at the pink and orange sky, watching it darken as the sun sunk further below the horizon.

"Haruki, what are we all going to do know?"

"I don't know" he replied to her question, "I suppose the best thing that we can do right now is survive."

"I guess you're right." Without any warning she bent down and kissed him quickly on the cheek before getting to her feet and walking back towards the ware house. Haruki could feel his face going bright pink as he lightly touch the place that she had kissed him; perhaps this exile thing wouldn't be so bad after all.

* * *

***hugs Akuma* i don't no y but i just luv writing about u!!!!!!!**

**Akuma: Some1 get this crazy bitch off of me!!!**

**lol anyway... i not really that happy with this chapter, the only thing that came out anywhere near the way i wanted it to was Kyoko's fight with her inner hollow. Her hollow was a fun character to write, i wonder if it says much about my personality, the fact that i find it easiest to write the psychotic killers, lol.**

**Well thats the end of another Bleach story. I'm not gunna be writing 4 bleach for a while because i want to focus on writing my Vampire knight story, Pure Water's Poison *just ta stop Stebbins Stella nagging at me lol* however i do have some ideas for some oneshots that i will probable post when i need a break from VK. **

**After VK i am going to be writing the Bleach story which is set in the present time line and focuses on Haruki going with Ichigo and co. to Soul Society to save Rukia.**

**Thanks for reading the story and pls review!!!!**


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